NationStates Jolt Archive

I haven't seen any threads on these, so here's one now...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4715540.stm
Excerpt:
An Australian TV channel has broadcast previously unpublished images showing apparent US abuse of prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail in 2003.
The images on SBS TV are thought to be from the same source as those that caused an outcry around the world and led to several US troops being jailed.
The new images show "homicide, torture and sexual humiliation", SBS said.
The US has said the images could only "incite unnecessary violence" and endanger US military personnel.
The broadcast of the images comes at a time of increased tension between Muslim nations and the West over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.

'Live rounds'
One of the videos broadcast on the SBS programme Dateline on Wednesday appears to show prisoners being forced to masturbate for the camera.
Other video footage appears to show a prisoner hitting his head against a wall.
The channel said he was a mentally disturbed patient who became a plaything of guards who practised ways of restraining him.
Some photos are said to show corpses. There are also images of prisoners with body and head wounds.
Some of the pictures have now been re-broadcast on US networks and on Arab satellite channels al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera.
SBS journalist Olivia Rousset told the BBC one of them showed a senior Iraqi officer being treated for a throat wound received after he resisted being transferred within the camp.
Some of the new photos showed soldiers who have already been convicted for their part in the abuse, including Lynndie England and Charles Graner, the man prosecutors said was the ringleader in the scandal.
A number are versions of the photographs that caused outrage when they were initially leaked in April 2004, including the prisoner wearing a hood and hooked to wires.
SBS also said it had received reports that some prisoners were killed when US soldiers ran out of rubber bullets during a prison riot and started using live rounds instead.

Convicted
US defence department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the images "could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world".
He said: "[The images] would endanger our military men and women that are serving around the world."
Great timing, isn't it... Maybe people are too angry at the cartoons to care about such pictures of an old event? Or perhaps this will be like pouring gasoline on the fire? We surely do live in interesting times...

I haven't seen any threads on these, so here's one now...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4715540.stm
Excerpt:

Great timing, isn't it... Maybe people are too angry at the cartoons to care about such pictures of an old event? Or perhaps this will be like pouring gasoline on the fire? We surely do live in interesting times...
Freedom of the Press. they can show inflamatory images and say "Hey it's our job, so what if people riot and kill others because of the images... It's not [the media's] fault."

Doesn't suprise me much - the people who did this stuff clearly managed to convince themselves that the victims weren't really humans at all, so they had no guilt about doing whatever they liked to them. They probably found it quite easy considering the way arabs are so demonised by some quarters.

by far not as bad as some of the initiation rituals they have in college or the military even. ever heard of blood pinning?

Doesn't suprise me much - the people who did this stuff clearly managed to convince themselves that the victims weren't really humans at all, so they had no guilt about doing whatever they liked to them. They probably found it quite easy considering the way arabs are so demonised by some quarters.

That's the reason I won't be surprised to learn about the killing of civilians or prisoners by american troops. In some cases there may be excuses, but I suspect that there are several cases in Iraq where soldiers commit homicide and go unpunished.

by far not as bad as some of the initiation rituals they have in college or the military even. ever heard of blood pinning?

Quote the article: The new images show "homicide, torture and sexual humiliation", SBS said. Not as bad as initiation rituals, i guess? :rolleyes:

Maybe years from now the history books will read that World War Three started over some Danish cartoons...

Maybe years from now the history books will read that World War Three started over some Danish cartoons...
I've found it interesting that most Arabs and Muslims are more outraged (enough to burn down embassies) over cartoons of Mohammed than they are about anything the US has done since 9-11.

Shows you where their priorities are.

perhaps the cartoons broke the camel's back... er horse's back...

Ah fuck it

Maybe that's because the war in Iraq is more of a local thing - and was a country with a dictator the arabs wasn't particularly fond of - while the cartoons seems to have offended every muslim by attacking their faith?

But I don't know all the reasons for the overreactions in the wake of the cartoons (people are still burning buildings and destroying shops in Pakistan with reference to them by the way), and why they would react less to these kinds of pictures...

Freedom of the Press. they can show inflamatory images and say "Hey it's our job, so what if people riot and kill others because of the images... It's not [the media's] fault."

Hopefully the media can add this bit to this story

"The people responsible for this are currently serving upto 10 years in a US military prison"

kinda takes things down a notch

Freedom of the Press. they can show inflamatory images and say "Hey it's our job, so what if people riot and kill others because of the images... It's not [the media's] fault."

Hopefully the media can add this bit to this story

"The people responsible for this are currently serving upto 10 years in a US military prison"

kinda takes things down a notch

Sure they really got the people responsible? All of them?
Nine junior soldiers have been convicted - some are serving jail sentences. All senior US commanders were cleared except the commander in charge of Abu Ghraib at the time, Janis Karpinski, who was reduced in rank from general to colonel.

Freedom of the Press. they can show inflamatory images and say "Hey it's our job, so what if people riot and kill others because of the images... It's not [the media's] fault."

Hopefully the media can add this bit to this story

"The people responsible for this are currently serving upto 10 years in a US military prison"

kinda takes things down a notch
10 years? 10 years? To me, that just makes it worse. It's insulting that a person can get away with this and only recieve a ten year term, especially if they killed another human being.

10 years? 10 years? To me, that just makes it worse. It's insulting that a person can get away with this and only recieve a ten year term, especially if they killed another human being.
I watched the documentary last night, and I definitely agee with you. Those images made me sick to my stomach, there was footage and pictures of this mentally ill man.... ugh. The videos were even worse. Also, there is massive evidence that this kind of thing is widespread in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo and that the government is covering it up. It's just... ugh. Especially when you remember that most of these people were just random civilians that got picked up. :(